Mesalliance

by Riley, Stella

  ‘Ah. Did I neglect to mention that I am invited as well?’

  ‘Yes. You did.’

  ‘My lamentable memory. Well?’

  Nell swallowed. ‘Di uses gillyflower essence and Thea likes lavender. Can – do you mean that I can go?’

  ‘I mean that I am prepared to take you.’ He fixed her with a deceptively lazy stare. ‘Omitting your dearest friends for a moment, what – briefly! – do you know of their family?’

  She grinned and ticked off points, reciting.

  ‘One: that their father is Roland Franklin, baronet, and their mother is therefore Lady Miriam. Two: that they have two brothers – Andrew, the elder and Tom, the younger. Three: that the household includes her ladyship’s brother and an indigent female cousin of uncertain age. Four: that the party will include other neighbouring families and – ‘

  ‘Enough.’ Shuddering slightly, his Grace set down his cup and rose from the table. ‘I see it all. Informal balls, al fresco luncheons, playing cards for sixpenny points and endless, insipid conversation. A nightmare.’

  ‘Don’t be so superior. And there’s nothing insipid about Diana. She’s ravishingly beautiful and you’ll probably fall hopelessly in love with her.’

  Rockliffe looked down with saturnine mockery and gave her ample time to regret this remark. Then he said sweetly, ‘Well, of course. I thought that was why I’ve been asked.’

  ~ * * * ~

  THREE

  It was, reflected Rockliffe as he moved easily with the motion of the chaise, not entirely unpleasant to play the martyr for once. He was deriving a certain amount of quiet amusement from Nell’s evident appreciation of his sacrifice; and, if he had to pay for this with a fortnight’s tedium … well, it was rapidly beginning to seem that this might be preferable to the storm-clouds that were about to burst over his life in London.

  Although never destined for operatic renown, Carlotta Felucci was possessed of an outstanding degree of beauty and, at the start of their liaison, her occasional bouts of Neapolitan temperament had been amusing. But that had been seven months ago and, now that the novelty had worn off, the only amusing thing about Carlotta was her undoubted talent between the sheets. Unfortunately, this - unique as it was - no longer outweighed her jealousy, her rapaciousness or her tantrums. Had he been less lethargic of late, he would probably have terminated their relationship several weeks ago. As it was, he had simply allowed his visits to become less frequent and thus been put in the inconceivable position of having Carlotta accost him on the street while Nell was on his arm. The mere thought of it still made him shudder and he had wasted no time in sending the lady a sapphire bracelet and her congé. But he was glad he would be out of range for a time. He abhorred scenes and Carlotta liked throwing things.

  He watched Nell gazing eagerly through the window. Really, apart from escaping unattended to buy some ribbons she’d previously forgotten she needed, she had given no trouble and had even [if one were honest] contrived to brighten an otherwise increasingly empty existence. Perhaps Rosalind and the rest of them were right, he thought unenthusiastically. Perhaps it was time he married. The trouble was that, although it was not difficult to call to mind some half-dozen young ladies who might suit Nell as a sister-in-law and chaperone, it was impossible to think of even one with whom he felt in the least inclined to share the rest of his life.

  Sighing faintly, he attempted to approach the problem logically. When you were thirty-six years old and head of your house, it was probably time to forget the foolish notion that had kept you single and remember what you owed to your name. For if, in all this time, you had not found what you sought, it was probably because it did not exist. Therefore, it would be only sensible to choose between the merits of the various alternatives available; and if Louisa Rushton’s laugh was irritating or Mistress Grantham’s tongue only capable of endorsing the opinions of others, they were at least born of your world and generally held by it to be beautiful. They and three or four others, all of whom you regarded with equal indifference.

  The question was a depressing one and he finally followed his usual habit of postponing a decision. There was, after all, nothing to be done in the immediate future and therefore the matter could wait until next month or next season or next year. The only pity was that it could not wait forever.

  ‘Rock?’ Nell’s voice cut across his thoughts. ‘Rock – we’re here. Look!’

  He looked. Brick-built in the compact Dutch style of the previous century, the Franklin home held an appearance of unostentatious comfort that immediately banished at least one of his Grace’s private fears. At the foot of the shallow flight of steps which led to the door, a liveried footman waited to let down the carriage steps while, in front of the door itself, the butler stood ready to welcome them. And then the picture changed as a pair of identically-gowned, identical blondes emerged quickly through the portal to skim, hand-in-hand, down to the chaise.

  ‘Gemini!’ murmured the Duke softly. ‘It’s the stomach disorder.’

  Fortunately, Nell did not hear him. Almost before the steps were down she tumbled laughing and talking into the twins’ arms, leaving Rockliffe to follow with a languor bordering on reluctance.

  ‘Oh Di – Thea - it’s so good to see you. It’s been weeks and I’ve so much to tell you! Truly, I thought we’d never get here – for nothing will persuade Rock to be jolted about in the chaise and – oh, this is Rock, by the way!’ She turned, drawing him forward and continued buoyantly, ‘It’ll be days before you can tell them apart, of course. However … this is Diana and this is Althea – my very dearest friends.’

  His Grace smiled lazily into two pairs of wide, blue eyes and made his bow.

  ‘How pleasant to discover that not quite all of Nell’s descriptions spring from her imagination.’

  Rising from her curtsy, Diana Franklin dimpled and said archly, ‘Oh? And how is that, sir?’

  ‘Merely,’ came the adroit reply, ‘that it will indeed be a challenge to tell you apart.’

  Diana, annoyingly aware that the expected compliment had somehow eluded her, took immediate steps to mend matters. Laying one hand lightly on the Duke’s sleeve and catching Nell’s fingers affectionately in the other, she drew them towards the house, talking all the time.

  ‘But how foolish to be standing here! Do please come in – Mama will be wondering what can be keeping us. Thea – run in and tell them that we’ll be with them directly. Nell, dearest – where did you get that hat? It’s quite ravishing and I’m green with envy for I’ve nothing one half so elegant.’ And then, with a slanting smile up at the Duke, ‘I suppose it was shockingly expensive?’

  ‘Shockingly,’ agreed Rockliffe. ‘As were the other dozen. Also, the gowns and cloaks, ribbons, laces and feathers. Not to mention the sh --’

  ‘I think,’ Nell choked, ‘that Di has the general idea.’

  ‘Shoes,’ he finished mildly. ‘What did you think I was going to say?’

  The salon into which Diana ushered them appeared to be full of people and, surprisingly, the Duke recognised one of them as a friend. However, he acknowledged this unexpected pleasure with no more than a lifted brow and gave his attention to his hostess. Lady Miriam, cool of manner and still bearing traces of the golden beauty she had bequeathed to her daughters, chided Diana for causing their guests to make so informal an entry – but was plainly not displeased by it. Ambitious, thought his Grace as he bowed and uttered suave commonplaces; ambitious and calculating. Sir Roland, by contrast, was the complete epitome of a country squire, being rotund, determinedly affable and somehow a trifle out of place. Rockliffe was not without sympathy. He felt somewhat out of place himself.

  ‘And this,’ announced Lady Miriam complacently, ‘is my first-born, Andrew.’

  Andrew, tall, loose-limbed and sulky, achieved a graceless bow and then found himself cornered by Nell’s smile.

  ‘How do you do? I’m so pleased to meet you at last for I understand you’ve a pure-bred Arab mare
that you’ve trained to do all manner of clever things. It is true she can dance the minuet?’

  The sulkiness evaporated into a reluctant grin.

  ‘You’ve been talking to Althea,’ he said. And then, ‘Yes, it’s true enough.’

  ‘You’ll have to put Rozalea through her paces for Lady Elinor,’ instructed his mother, pleasantly, ‘I’m sure that she would find it most entertaining. But you will have to wait a little longer before putting your heads together – as I’ve no doubt you are both eager to do – until she has met your uncle and Lord Harry.’

  Nell blinked, somewhat taken aback by this assumption. His Grace, who understood it perfectly, hid a smile and moved on to exchange courtesies with the over-dressed, foppish gentleman, complete with rouge and patches, who it appeared was her ladyship’s brother. Then, without waiting for an introduction, he turned to that gentlemen’s nearest companion and said, ‘Well, Harry … and how was Paris?’

  Lord Harry Caversham grinned cheerfully.

  ‘So-so. It all depends on whether one likes rushing from one engagement to the next like a demented ferret and braving the crush at Versailles to get the merest glimpse of Marie Antoinette. For myself, the best I can say of it is that the company was fair and the wine better.’ He turned to Nell and bowed with mischievous formality over her hand. ‘Hello, Nell. Have you forgiven me yet for removing you from the Overbury masquerade last Christmas?’

  Her colour deepened but she said with creditable aplomb, ‘I’d forgotten all about it. But, since you ask, I still don’t see what business it is of yours what parties I attend.’

  ‘None at all, of course,’ he replied promptly. ‘It’s just that it’s usual to have an invitation.’

  At least two people laughed. One of them was Diana.

  ‘Pique, repique and capot,’ drawled Rockliffe. ‘And you, Nell, would do well to hold your peace before Lady Miriam realises just how undesirable is the company her daughters are keeping.’

  This time the laughter was more general and, into it, her ladyship remarked that, reprehensible though it undoubtedly was, such pranks were merely the result of girlish high-spirits and did no lasting harm.

  The Duke, who knew they could do a great deal of harm, said dryly, ‘That is a matter of opinion. But I should have realised that we could rely on your ladyship giving poor Nell the benefit of the doubt.’

  Effectively silenced, her ladyship smiled uncertainly and Harry Caversham found himself obliged to study the richly patterned carpet beneath his feet. The stage was therefore left free for Diana who surged gaily forward with the observation that, excepting only her little brother, Tom – who had had gone off goodness only knew where as usual and would doubtless reappear in his own good time – his Grace and Nell had now met everyone.

  ‘They haven’t, Di,’ came Althea’s timid whisper. ‘There’s still Addie. She’s over there.’

  Diana drew an impatient breath and glanced irritably at her twin. Then, gesturing carelessly to the slight, motionless figure waiting in the shadows, she said, ‘Oh yes. How could I possibly have forgotten that? Your Grace, Nell dearest … allow me to present Mama’s companion – our cousin, Adeline.’

  The indigent female of uncertain age, deduced Rockliffe; plain, middle-aged and down-trodden. And, largely because he was beginning to feel that Mistress Diana needed a lesson in manners, he smiled pleasantly into the gloom and executed the same bow he would have accorded a countess.

  It was only then, as he straightened, that the figure moved unhurriedly out into the light and, in a cool, husky voice that stopped his breath, said, ‘We’ve met. But your Grace wouldn’t remember that, I daresay.’

  Meeting long-lashed aquamarine eyes filled with detached irony and set beneath narrow, winged brows, his first thought was that she was changed beyond recognition … and his second, that he would have known her anywhere. The eyes and the voice were the same; it was only the suggestion of frosted bitterness that was new. And if the dark brown hair was now neatly – if unbecomingly – arranged, the wide mouth was instantly familiar; too generous for so fine-boned a face and too vulnerable for the new poise she had apparently acquired.

  He became aware that the air was alive with curiosity and said carefully, ‘Then you malign me, Mistress Kendrick. And flatter me, too – for it must be all of seven years ago and you were little more than a child, as I recall.’

  ‘Eight,’ she corrected. ‘And I was sixteen.’

  Frowning, Lady Miriam said coldly, ‘I was not aware of this, Adeline. Why did you not mention it?’

  ‘Because I didn’t think it important,’ came the laconic reply. And then, with the merest hint of malicious amusement, ‘But if I was mistaken, I beg your pardon.’

  The discreetly-veiled jibe found its mark.

  ‘That will do, Miss! I find your secrecy incomprehensible and your timing lacking in taste. For the rest, do not over-rate yourself.’

  The blue-green eyes opened guilelessly wide.

  ‘I don’t, Aunt. That’s what I said.’

  Her extraordinary self-possession contrasted sharply with Rockliffe’s own sense of shock and he resented it. She must, of course, have known that he was coming – but that was neither a satisfactory explanation nor a balm; and it was already more than enough that she should manage to set him at a disadvantage like this without the addition of her unnecessarily ingenuous remarks.

  He smiled at her with what at least two persons present recognised as dangerous benevolence and said gently, ‘Perhaps you did indeed have just cause for doubting my ability to place you. After all, I’m compelled to acknowledge that I find you considerably changed.’ He paused and conducted a leisurely head to foot appraisal. ‘You appear, for example, to have discovered the benefits of wearing shoes – an achievement on which I can only congratulate you.’

  And watched her pallor vanish beneath a tide of colour as the silence dissolved into a light ripple of laughter.

  *

  Later, while his valet helped him into the claret velvet coat he had selected to wear for dinner, he wondered why having to explain that he’d once spent an enforced furlough in Northumberland should cause the past to close up like a telescope when there was so little to recall. He had stayed in Redesdale for roughly two weeks and had met Adeline Kendrick no more than half a dozen times – always seemingly by accident. That was all there was to it; a handful of random, almost other-worldly conversations. And now the simple truth was that the feelings he’d been unable to understand eight years ago and rarely thought of since, were no more than dust. His memories had been of a wild creature … unspoilt, sensitive and fragile. All that remained was a cold-eyed woman with a barbed tongue – a fact that left him feeling faintly cheated until he remembered that painful flush, swiftly followed by flight. And then resentment gave way, unwillingly, to shame; and anger with himself for being betrayed into a lack of manners.

  There was a tap at the door, succeeded almost immediately by a rustling vision in rose taffeta. Rockliffe sighed, dismissed his valet and gave his attention to the serious business of choosing a snuff-box from the impressive array in front of him.

  ‘Rock?’ said Nell, realising the need to distract him from this occupation. ‘You don’t mind if I come in?’

  ‘The question seems a trifle redundant, don’t you think?’ he murmured, frowning with a dissatisfied air at the enamelled box in his hand. ‘How provoking. I ordered this coat in the belief that it was a perfect match for this box, but it isn’t. In fact, it clashes quite horribly. I must be slipping.’

  ‘Take the silver one, then,’ she said carelessly.

  He eyed her incredulously. ‘With gold lacing? I hardly think so.’

  ‘Then change your coat. I don’t know why you have to go through this performance all the time. You don’t even take snuff – you just pretend.’

  A flicker of humour appeared.

  ‘You must allow me my little affectations, Nell. No one might notice me otherwise.’

>   Nell narrowly avoided pointing out that no one – particularly females - could help noticing him. Even she, his sister, had to admit that he was exceptionally good-looking. His height, his bearing … the long, thickly-powdered hair, tonight tied back with black ribands … his dark, often mocking, eyes and the tailored planes of his face … well, she wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that London was littered with girls who dreamed of him at night. But it would never, never do to say so; and those girls, of course, had no idea of how utterly infuriating he could be when he chose.

  Attempting to fulfil her purpose in seeking him out in private, she said, ‘I didn’t come to talk about snuff-boxes. I came to see what you think of - of the family.’

  ‘My dear, I can scarcely admit to having thought of them at all.’ Rockliffe laid the box down and picked up another. ‘I suppose it will have to be this one … but I’ve never been entirely happy with the tracery. A little too florid, don’t you think?’

  ‘No.’ She sat down on a rosewood chair, her expression determined. ‘I expect you were glad to find Ha – Lord Harry here, weren’t you?’

  ‘More so than you, I imagine.’

  ‘Yes. Well … I think he’s insufferably rude and interfering but I don’t intend to let him annoy me,’ she said handsomely. And then, ‘Fancy you knowing Di’s cousin – and recognising her, too. They’re all agog with curiosity.’

  ‘Are they?’ His eyes rose briefly to encompass her. ‘Then I fear they are doomed to disappointment.’

  ‘Oh – not about you. It’s her – the cousin. Di can’t understand why she didn’t say that she knew you when she first heard we were coming.’ She paused, irritatingly aware that his attention had wandered again. ‘I must say, it does seem very odd. But then, according to Di, she is odd. I gather, when she first came to live here, Lady Miriam had to resort to quite strong measures to stop her wandering off for hours on end and then coming back with her hair like a hayrick and her shoes in her hand.’